Daring Bakers + lemons + meringue = lemon meringue PIE challenge

This month's DB challenge ... LEMON MERINGUE PIE or Free-style LEMON TARTLETS

When I first heard about the challenge I must admit I did not get too excited, but after thinking about it for a while and discussing it with my Bad Monsieur Josh (a.k.a The Pie Maker)



I decided to give it a go and make it the BEST Lemon Meringue Pie, I've ever had... (secret confession.. I am not a lemon meringue pie connoisseur), I began to think what could I do with the recipe and I prepared all of my ingredients



On Saturday afternoon the neighbours of the 9th floor were unsuspecting of the fact that they would wake up to a sea of Lemon Curd, seriously.. this was MY favourite part of the challenge, mixing in the corn starch and the sugar and waiting for it to thicken.. you get this goooey fun to work with and watch lemony curd, I just wanted to keep making more and more, but the more I thought about my plan of flooding the 9th floor of my building with lemon curd.. I realized that perhaps my neighbours would not appreciate it as much as my fellow Daring Bakers would.. so /sigh .. no lemon curd flood.

The only change that I made to the recipe was that I added some lemon zest to my pastry dough, you really couldn't feel it but I liked the idea of hiding something in the crust mwahahahaha!!! And.. I decided to make tartlets instead of ONE BIG pie, I really liked them.. mmmm sooo yummy ^_^

and for your delight.. a lovely picture of the tarts .. oh and thank you to Jenn from The Canadian Baker for this month's challenge

2 new things and some CAKE!

OH JOY!!! to finally own a digital camera and be able to take pictures of EVERYTHING, I hope you don't get tired of the pictures y'all.. I am a firm believer in the more pictures.. the BETTER!!!

Since my camera needed a home to stay protected, warm and cozy when I take it out on the town... I armed myself with my scissors, lots of patience and the sewing machine.. and after one failed design I was finally able to finish a temporary home for my camera (temporary.. because I think I can make improvements to the pattern, but for now it will do..) and I am happy with it ^-^



The second new thing is.. A FOOD SCALE!!! yay!!! finally I have a food scale.. I am quite happy with it and I think is pretty.. now I'll never be fooled about grams or ounces.. I can measure them, tee hee!!!



AND WHAT ABOUT THE CAKE??? you might ask.. well that is the best part, I've been craving some chocolate cake for the past few days, actually since I saw this post on Eat Drink Live .. so I whipped it up and made some mini cakes and let me tell you that it is FABULOUS!!! in half of the mini cakes I hid raspberries and the combo of flavours is amazing!!! I need to find more recipes of chocolate cake with raspberries.. mmm ... here.. have some

The day Heath Ledger died

It is sad, very sad.... he is dead or so they say, I still can't believe it.. I am hoping it is all a publicity stunt and that he'll be back for the premiere of The Dark Knight .. you know?? like he dies and comes back as the Joker... I am hoping, and wishing it isn't true, what they say about his death.


He was only 2 years and a few months older than I am right now, and he is gone..... he will be certainly missed because he had great talent, he made us laugh, cry and believe in love (I certainly loved him in 10 things I hate about you)


... I still wish and hope it is all a joke

My Christmas in January

Since I went to HOooOME to spend Christmas with my parents, Bad Monsieur Josh and Miss Martha (aka Carrie) agreed to celebrate Christmas in January with ME!!!

The plan for Christmas in January was set in motion back in December 2007, we agreed there would be no presents until our especial weekend in January and no Christmas cards, nothing Christmasy until that weekend, which worked out perfectly... because this way we had time to think about presents and I had time to make an especial stocking for Bad Monsieur Josh (well didn't really have much time.. but he got his nice embroidered stocking of which I forgot to take a pictures >_<) and had time to design Miss Martha's card.

After my crazy holiday season it was nice to come back to Ottawa and celebrate Christmas in January, it is a really nice tradition actually... on Sunday, January 13th Bad Monsieur Josh and I woke up to give each other our Christmas presents and made a very nice breakfast and later on that night we went over to Miss Martha's for Christmas dinner!!! it was awesome... what can I say I love Christmas in January ^-^

and what did I get for Christmas presents you might ask??? well... Miss Martha got me some really nice fabric to embroider and a Stuart McLean book *jumps around* and my pie maker Bad Monsieur Josh got me some seasons of Sex and the City and... *drum roll please*..... a DIGITAL CAMERA!!!! I looove my presents !!!

And.. this is one of the first pictures I took with my awesome new camera



cute eh?

... and that was Christmas in January.. I like this idea of having 2 Christmases.. it just makes me happy ^_^

Back after the holidays craze...

To begin with, here are some more pictures of my Yule Log...





And how were my holidays you might ask??? (well Christmas and New Year's because there is another set of holidays called Christmas in January but that story will be told tomorrow)... well they had good and BAAAAD parts.

I left Ottawa on Friday the 21st of December to go home and visit my parents in Aguascalientes Mexico. I arrived to the airport knowing that it would be a long day, but that around 9:30 I would be home with my parents... oh I was sooo wrong! The flight from Ottawa to Chicago got delayed because there was fog in the Chicago airport (unluckily for me, my connections were very tight), well with about a 2 hour delay we made it to Chicago and the flight to Dallas had also been delayed so I was able to take that flight, but when I got to Dallas to take my flight to Aguascalientes (the only flight a day) they had just left, as in if I would have arrived 2 minutes earlier I would have made it.

I thought that it wouldn't be so bad, I mean I would get accommodations for the night from American Airlines and the next day I would go home.. well I was wrooong about that too. I went to the ticket counter from American Airlines where they told me they would not provide accommodations because it was due to weather and I would not be able to get home until Sunday (this was Friday) because all flights were full. I didn't have communication with my parents until I finally was able to call them using a 20 dollar phone card that gave me 4 minutes. I stayed in Dallas that night in a discount hotel that American Airlines got for me because I was a "distress passenger" and the next day I flew from Dallas to Acapulco and from Acapulco to Mexico city (both of the flights were delayed so it was a VERY looong day). When I finally got to Mexico City, I had to go to the ticket counter from American Airlines and try and get my tickets for the next day and a discount hotel, well the ticket counter was closed so I had to go to an obscure office to get all of that, but blessed them, they gave me the hotel and some food money... FINALLY they were nice (seriously the people that work for American Airlines in the United States need to be a little bit nicer).

On Sunday I finally got to Aguascalientes, but I was sooo tired and I had been through so much, I just wanted to sleep through the holidays. Christmas was nice and for New Year's we went to Palenque, Chiapas and we has lots of fun and it was a really good trip. My parents got me some really nice clothes as a Christmas present and I also got some really nice fabric.

When I had to return to Ottawa (a Monday), I was nervous because I didn't want to have any problems, oh well... you don't always get what you ask for. My plane left from Aguascalientes without any problems, we got to Dallas fine, and from Dallas the flight was delayed to Chicago because there were crazy winds, finally after a 2 hour delay we get on the plane and we arrive to Chicago just in time to run to my flight to Ottawa, and when I get there they tell me that the flight to Ottawa has been canceled because of fog in Ottawa, and at this point my only chance to get back to Ottawa is not until Wednesday, OH DEAR!!! I couldn't wait until Wednesday I just wanted to get home to Ottawa, I just wanted to get out of Airports so what I did was stay the night in Chicago and fly to Montreal the following day and from Montreal take a bus to Ottawa.. oh and of course I forgot to mention, they lost my luggage and I didn't get it back until Friday (well at least I got it back)

I seriously needed holidays to get over my holidays... I am scared of the whole traveling thing now.. I don't think I'll flight with American Airlines ever again!. And.. when I got to Ottawa and it was all over I got sick.. so yeah.. those were my "holidays" .... but stay tuned I'll tell you about my Christmas in January tomorrow.. that was NIIIICE!

--glad to be back!